Tunisian Jews have always represented a unique culture, due
to the the geographical situation of Tunisia as well as by the historical problems
encountered by this community. Confronted by rather harsh living conditions, Tunisian Jews
have developed along the centuries they spent in Tunisia, a unique and quite interesting
personality mainly based on tolerance. Tolerance to ideas and differences, probably
due to the situation of Mediterranean crossroads enjoyed by Tunisia and to the multiple
influences and invasions endured by Tunisia during the centuries of sojourn of the Jews in
Tunisia.

If we realize that the Tunisian Jews have lived
under the influence of the Spaniards, the Arab conquerors, then under the Turks and the
French colonizers, notwithstanding all the different invasions of the Romans, Vandals or
Byzantine, then we understand much better their internationalist component. Never exceeding 100.000, among a total population of
5 million people, the Jewish presence in Tunisia has been documented by archeological
proofs to exceed 20 centuries. As old as the destruction of the first Jerusalem Temple,
the presence of the Jews in Tunisia has received over time the influx of successive
immigration waves, mostly from Spain and Portugal at the times of the Inquisition and then
from Italy, mainly Livorno.

When we look at history from the perspective of the last hundred
years, at the end of the 19th century, Tunisian Jews live in in a state of economical and
social decay.

Subjects of the Bey, they are living under the
statute of dhimmi, which forces them to pay a special tax and keep them as
citizens of lower rank in every area. Their houses and synagogues have to be lower in size
than that of their Arabic neighbors. The economy is disastrous, commercial exchanges
practically non existant and the Jews are subjected to all kinds of vexations from the
part of the Arabic population. Jews survive on a day to day basis, practicing usury
and small commerce, confined to the only jobs they are allowed to perform, tailor,
shoemaker, ironworker, jeweler, or butcher.Aside from a few families of rich , the Jews live in La hara, a ghetto
surrounded by walls and with doors which are closed at night. Conditions of life are
horrendous and very often, entire families live in a small room without any ventilation,
sharing bathroom(a hole in the ground) and kitchen with other families. No
sanitary public services are offered, water comes once in a while from a public fountain
and the sewer runs in the open in the middle of the street, source of epidemics and
multiple hygiene problems. Education is only assured by old rabbis teaching Gemaraand Kabbalah in
Judeo-Arabic language transliterated in Rashi characters. Tunisian Jews are, for the great majority, a poor
community, profoundly religious and simple, surviving more or less on a day to day basis.
Mixed marriages with the Arabsare extremely rare and relations between the two groups are reduced to a minimum.The Jewish population appear close to despair when suddenly everything
is going to change.

In 1878, the Alliance Francaise Universelle opens its first
French school in Tunis with the reluctant agreement of the rabbis who, for the first time
accept to share their monopoly with secular studies.

In 1881, the French government, called after a
somber story of rebel troops operating at the border with Algeria, decide to intervene
militarily and transform Tunisia into a protectorate, forcing the Bey to sign the Bardo
treaty in 1881. The Jews welcome the French, hoping that the
newcomers hold the key to their redemption. Everyone is impressed by their culture, their
manners and their powerful and modern army, in a word by their "civilization". After the forces of occupation take the control of
the country, tens of thousands of French "colons" arrive, roads and bridges are
built, farms sprout, producing wheat and grapes. Commerce develops and the Jews are able
to find an important place in this new economical order. Prosperity soon enough
reaches all different levels of society, increasing the quasi natural admiration for the
new occupier. Jews, feeling less threatened under the new regime, are going little by
little to modify their life styles.

First rejecting their traditional ways of dressing, the Tunes
embrace the new French fashion. Very soon, it is a complete osmosis that is going to occur
between the Jews and the French, projecting the Tunes from a dark era to a time of renewal
under the tutelage of the French.

Jews leave the Hara to go and live in the more
comfortable apartments and the security of the French quarters. Little by little, they
escape from the tight control of religion which they consider now as representing the old
values, as opposed to the new ways of living like the French. Opening of stores belonging to Jews on the shabbat,
consumption of non-kosher foods, interest in French music, literature and theatre are
going to speed the process of transformation. The language which was a mixture of Arabic with
typical connotationsHebraic-ital.-Hispanic, the Judeo-Arabic is now only employed by the
old people and the "backwards". The new generations go to the Alliance Franchise
and to the new French lycees which are sprouting in every major town. Tunisian Jews start to mingle with the French and try only to express
themselves in the language of Voltaire with a French accent and go to the movies and the
theatre. The new generations, who mainly speak French, have a
lot of trouble communicating with the old generations and the rabbis who have not been
educated in the new culture.The Tunes play their roles so well that very soon, even some French
people think that Jews are fully French. First names of the Jews start to change and
Breitou becomes Abraham and then Albert, taking the Tunes on an irreversible route which
is going to change their destiny and turn the tide of history. Jews start to believe that they are from this French
culture. A new class of privileged people, Jewish Tunisian Bourgeois comprising all those
who have been able to take advantage of the economic boom shows the way to the rest of the
population. The dream now is to obtain the coveted French nationality and to belong to
this profoundly admired group of blond, blue eyed colonizer. French culture has so fascinated the Tunes that it became
the major contesting force for their moral values, challenging in a couple of generations
the Judaism of their ancestors and the Arabic culture where they had lived for centuries.
That was the key moment when the loss of identity occurred to reach the majority of the
population.

The second world war brings all the disillusions of the Vichy
government and the landing of the nazi troops at the El Aouina airport. A total panic
seizes the Jews facing the nazi commander who start building a concentration camp, orders
the Tunes to perform forced labor,
impose rationing and attract bombing from allied forces.

Tunisian Jews "volunteering" for work

The nazi commander impose a huge fine on the Jewish
community, blaming them for the war and I let you discover the vocabulary he used in his
order assessing a fine of 20 millions
francs as well as the proof
of payment by an Algerian bank. Maybe it is time to ask for a refund as well as
reparations?

Six horrible months of nazi occupation end up
with the arrival of the American and British troops, freeing the country and bringing back
a much needed period of peace and economic stability. The end of the war bring as well a
new French government and a new French administration, anxious to distance itself from the
shame brought by Vichy and Petain.

And the commercial activity, soon enough helped by
the postwar reconstruction effort reaches a new boom, helping the Jews to forget the
bitterness of the war and embark on a new quest towards assimilation.

But the truce is short lived because the Arabic
Tunisian Nationalistic movement led by Habib Bourguiba get organized with goal to gain
independence from France.Between the racism with culture from the
French and the volatility of the Tunisian nationalistic renewal, The Jews choose without a
doubt France.The new leitmotiv becomes :"One day or
another, we will have to leave Tunisia."The call to leave is really hard to stomach for all the Jews who see everyday
many families depart. Three large waves of departures with any furniture they can salvage
and 5 dinars($5.00) per person.

1956 : independence of Tunisia

1961: Bizerte war where the Tunisian army, after provoking the French
troops, demand the restitution of the last French army base.

1967 : Six days war between Israel and the Arabic countries. An
unruly mob descends on the Jewish quarter, stores and edifices in Tunis. The main
synagogue, containing a Sefer Torah where Ibn Ezra read in the 12th century, is burned.
That triggers a mass exodus and today there only 2000 Jews living in all of Tunisia.
Half of the Jews go to Israel, the other half choose France and a tiny minority is
dispersed all over the world.

Today, Tunisian Jews have remarkably succeeded in all areas of French life and occupy a
dominant place in society. This said, mixed marriages represent 50% of all marriages,
widening the trend of assimilation and erasing even further an traces of our past.
The new generations, born outside of Tunisia and surrounded by foreign cultures have kept
very little of their past and the centuries of wisdom they had accumulated in Tunisia. If
the trend continues, combined with with the rampant assimilation, the future generations

would barely remember Tunisia as being the old ancient culture from where one
of their grand parents came from.